Mike - The Mets Leave Me Conflicted

As the title suggests, being a Mets fan can be extremely difficult, leaving one “conflicted" on many different levels.   The idea for this particular article came to me while I was sifting through MLB news over the weekend and reviewing fans’ reaction to the Ohtani and Stanton decisions. In our particular case we are once again "on the outside looking in" at other teams as they make significant moves to improve their standing within the MLB community.

Understandably, the two aforementioned moves have sparked quite a reaction within our fan base, which has ranged between indifference and outright hostility. It isn’t too surprising in the “twitter age” since “having a hot take” anymore seems to involve extreme negativity, whether it is truly deserved or not.  If you don’t believe me, take an unbiased look at our political structure and you will see a level of negativity that is truly historic. I will not delve any further into the political realm, only to say that “non-stop” negativity will manifest itself into apathy at first, before moving onto an overall lack of interest in whatever topic is being discussed (refer to the NFL for an even better example).  

So how does this relate to the Mets’ off season to date?

Dusting off one of my old college text books on Psychology, I remembered Sigmund Freud’s model of the human psyche and how it was divided into three basic parts.  They were referred to as the Id, the Superego and the Ego, in case you forgot or you were never subjected to Psychology 101.  This theory was geared more towards understanding human sexuality, but I figured this blog was already interesting enough that I should probably leave the “sexual” part out of the conversation (Mack is probably shaking his head right now, having second thoughts about my invitation to the blog).

With that said, the Id is the “primitive and instinctual part of the mind that contains our aggressive drives and hidden memories”.   Basically, this is the part of your mind that resembles the “little red devil” on your shoulder that is telling you what you should do.  In this case, the Id wants the Mets to go out and SPEND, SPEND, SPEND!  Put the best possible team on the field and screw the budget!  This is New York, a big market team and we should start acting like it by flexing our financial muscles, while keeping up with the Yankees across town.   Does this sound familiar to anyone?   Is this not how most of the fan base is acting right now?

The second part is referred to as the Superego and it is your extreme moral conscience that has been developed over the many years of our social growth.  Some would better understand this part as the “little angel on your other shoulder", attempting to keep you under control.  Or you could think of this as a “book of rules” that one lives by to keep society relatively peaceful and orderly.  It is “treating others as you would  like to be treated” or holding a door for someone as you enter a restaurant, etc.   Related to the Mets current situation, the Superego may make fans say things like “Sandy is doing the best that he can” or “the Wilpons are not letting him do anything”.  Perhaps even eliciting a response like “I will wait until the off season is over before passing judgment on the Mets’ roster” (I actually said that in the comments section yesterday).  I recognize this part of my own “Mets Psyche” on a daily basis.

Lastly, we come to the part that Freud referred to as the Ego, which is “the realistic part that mediates between the desires of the Id and the Superego”.   The easiest way to understand the Ego is to think of it as a filter or the end result of the conflict between the Id (spoiled child) and the Superego (mature adult).  It usually dictates how we behave and it guides the ultimate decisions that are made by our conscious mind.  Sort of like the movie “Roadhouse”, when Patrick Swayze told his bouncers that they “should be nice, until it is time not to be nice”.   As a Mets fan, it is wanting “all of the nice things on the shelf”, but understanding that you ultimately can’t have everything that you want.  

I am a pretty patient person/fan, but even I recognize that Sandy needs to make some changes to the roster, unlike last year (look, it is my Superego at work). 

So, as the off season progresses, think about where you are with regards to our old pal Sigmund Freud’s theories of our psyche.  Oh and where else can you read about Sigmund Freud, the Mets Patrick Swayze and the underrated classic Roadhouse all in one place!